This study investigated the effect of participation in a 14-day career redirection
program on the reemployment, explanations for unemployment, and levels of
depression and self-esteem of 44 unemployed adults who had recently become
physically disabled. The career redirection program was delivered using an extended
Solomon four-group design. The subjects’ explanations for their unemployment, and
their levels of depression and self-esteem were measured on at least two of four
possible occasions: (a) before participating in the program, (b) after completing the
program, (c) after waiting to participate in the program, or (d) eight weeks after
completing the program. The researcher contacted the subjects who completed the
program after eight weeks to determine their employment status and to request the
completion of the final questionnaire battery. A random sample of the subjects who
finished the program were also interviewed in-depth to obtain detailed information
about their experiences of: (a) becoming disabled, (b) being confronted with the need
to change jobs as a result of their disabilities, and (c) participating in the career
redirection program. All the incidents reported by the subjects that related to their
emotional reactions to these three experiences were identified from transcripts of the
interviews. Incidents describing similar reactions to components of these experiences
were grouped into categories. Six stages were discerned from the analysis of the
categories of emotional reactions. Taken together, these six stages described a career
redirection process. The results of the study demonstrated the effectiveness of the
treatment program in assisting the subjects through the career redirection process.
Eight weeks after finishing the program, 60.5% of the subjects were involved in
reemployment activities (11.6% working; 28% independent in job search; 20.9% taking
training). Contrary to the researcher’s expectations, the subjects did not exhibit the
effects of long-term unemployment documented in the literature, possibly because they....